My Favorite Body Part

Last night I had my first appointment with my kids' chiropractor in order to alleviate some knee pain during exercise. Talk about a good adjustment!

Anyways, Maggie came along for some girl time.
We planned to be back for her dance class afterwards, but the chiropractor was running behind and it's a 20 minutes drive back to Stewie. So instead, we had a much needed girls night, eating pizza at CiCi's and shopping at Old Navy. Both her choices. Matching workout pants? Check.

Before you feel bad for the boys, we left them chicken in the crock pot, though they opted for pb&j sandwiches. AND we brought them Dairy Queen. 

I did learn something new about Maggie during our time together.

"Mom, you wanna know what my favorite body part is? My legs, my feet, and my eyebrows."

"I like those, too, Mags. Why are they your favorite?"

"Well, my legs are soft and I like soft things. And my eyebrows are soft and smooth."

Haha. Love the logic.  Here's to positive body image!

The Wait

It's on.  Now that my official due date has come and gone, the contentment I felt a week ago has been replaced by annoyance that I'm "still" pregnant and uncomfortable.

As we've been waiting, we've tried to fill our time with memory-making activities as a family of four.

Steve and I were able to go on our first date in two months thanks to Steve's parents being in town last weekend.  His love affair with sushi started last spring when we went out with some friends, and now that he has brought me on board, I was more than happy to accompany him to Ichi Tokyo in Rochester.  California rolls - yum!  We finished our date with Caribou Coffee.  I have treated myself to a mocha more often these past two weeks than I care to admit...

Steve took this super flattering photo of me using baby as a drink holder.

Later in the week we went to Applebee's on a family date, knowing that we might not be going out for a leisurely dinner for a while.

My girl.  We've had our share of confrontations recently, but she's still my sweet princess.

They wait so patiently at restaurants now.  Bode brought cars to play with on this occasion.

Cubbies  Bible character night.  We realized this was the dress up theme at the last minute, so quickly tried to put together an Egyptian princess costume, per Maggie's request.  That's Moses in the basket.  Oh, and Moses is her newest idea for a baby name.

 And then came Halloween.  Steve was helping to coach the Stewartville Tigers to a Section Championship victory, so I loaded Maggie and Bode in the minivan to go trick-or-treating at just a few friends' houses.  We came back home to watch It's a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters that came to our door.

Ariel and puppy.

And on Halloween, as I put this shirt on, I realized I looked like a snake that just ate a very large rodent.  So there - I dressed up, too. 

Today while I was at a baby shower, Steve took Maggie and Bode to a volleyball game.  Maggie was asked when she thought baby would arrive.  And apparently this is what she said, "Well, I was thinking Halloween, but now I'm thinking Valentine's Day."  Thankfully, I KNOW that will not be the case.  He'll be here soon.  :)

Nickelodeon Universe!

Last week after a great Father's Day weekend with the Gibbs family, I had a meeting for a school committee on Monday and then Steve left Tuesday for a principal's conference until Friday.  Between thunderstorms, here's how we kept busy checking items off our list while Steve was away:

• Toddler Tuesday at MOA, complete with Nickelodeon Universe and
• A free movie at the theater

Toddler Tuesday at MOA with the Wonder Pets.

Kailan...

Rides...

Legos...

Ice cream to finish the day.

• Pajama and movie day (more like just a morning, but it was raining outside)

• Made postcards - well one, for cousin Lily.

• Breakfast for dinner.

Not on our list, a girl date with Maggie.

• Run a race...or walk...or ride.  

This was the Heartbeat 5000 - a fundraising 5K for the cardiovascular clinic at Children's Hospital.  We walked in honor of our friend, Abigail Johnson.

We finished our week by hosting small group at our house with a fun ice cream bar.  And I was able to get my adirondack chairs finished in time.

Stewie Pool, Stewie Pool, Checkin Off the List with the Stewie Pool!

This was the chant the kids adopted last week as we continued with the summer list.  Here's what we did:

• Stewartville Pool

A couple chilly days, but they were ready!

• Pom Pom activities

I bought a bunch of pom poms awhile ago to use for crafts.  Bode started our pom pom days by dropping them through a paper towel roll.

Maggie was making a butterfly, so Bode decided he should make a puppy.

Maggie's pom pom butterfly.

• Nature Walk

She brought her camera along to take photos of the things we saw.

Our checklist for the walk.

• Fly a kite

• Read books outside

• Diet Coke and Mentos demonstration

• Gummy bear popsicles

• Obstacle Course

Summer List 2014

School is out for me!  Just a couple more days with students for Steve.

We created such fun memories last year with our Summer List, that we once again came up with 100 activities to complete before the start of fall.

 We checked off our first one yesterday - no bake cookies.

Today was pretty low-key after finding out the baby's gender, so we chose to play hide n' seek before bed.

First one checked off - making no bake cookies.

My Entertainment

I love listening to Maggie and Bode interact when I'm not in the room. That is, when they're getting along.

This morning as I make breakfast, I can hear them singing their own rendition of "Any Dream Will Do."  Maggie is singing Joseph's part and Bode is the "Ah-ah-ah" chorus.  Future Donny and Marie?

Skip ahead to 2:20 and picture my little sweeties singing.

Blast from the Past

Friday night, Steve and I went roller skating with a couple of friends.  I haven't gone skating since college and it was SO FUN.  Steve is a pro, having grown up going weekly to a rink owned by some family friends.  It took me awhile to get past the wobbly stage, but I started to get the hang of it towards the end.

 

We WILL be doing this again.

Surprise Birthday Date

Both of my sweeties were taking their naps, and I was finishing up cleaning the kitchen yesterday when I heard our stubborn front doorknob jiggling.  The door creaked open while Asia started barking like crazy.  I went to investigate and sure enough, it was my husband, home from work at 1:00 (he's been walking to and from the school this week)!  I was surprised, to say the least, and even more surprised when he said that his mom was coming in ten minutes, so we could go out to celebrate my birthday!  I had no idea, especially since my birthday isn't for another week, falling on Easter this year.  I hurriedly showered, got myself ready, and got Maggie's and Bode's things ready to go to their grandparents' while Steve and I went out.

We did a little shopping with some gift cards that were burning a hole in my wallet, saw The Hunger Games (good!), and ate a yummy Mexican meal at Don Julio's.  Then we moseyed back to Isanti and enjoyed a nice cup of coffee at Rendezvous before heading home to tuck Maggie into bed.

It was nice enough outside to enjoy our coffee on the patio at Rendezvous.  Ahhh.

It was a fun early celebration and a long overdue date night for the two of us!

Play Date Project

Every once in awhile, we like to get together with a couple other stay-at-home-moms and their children for a play date.  Last time we were together, Evie mentioned it'd be fun to have some sort of organized activity for the kiddos to do.  Inspired by the rainy weather and some creative kids activities I found on Pinterest using cotton balls, I whipped up a little something for today's date.

I felt like I was planning a lesson, but after teaching secondary science for years, it was fun to get in touch with my early childhood/elementary side!  

At their age, the kids don't have an incredibly long attention span, but I think they had fun.

Finished products.  Sorry I cut out N's artwork!

We also had to get some photos of the babies.

B - 5 months, C - 3 months, L - 5 1/2 weeks

Buddies

Bode was very interested in C.  C was a good sport.